


shockwave

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Near Miss AU [2]
Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Gen, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25091449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: It feels like the floor has fallen out from under them. This is going to change everything.This is going to changeeverything.
Series: Near Miss AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1735408
Comments: 34
Kudos: 69





	shockwave

**Author's Note:**

> I was talking the other day about how Darcy, Bill, and Benny's reactions to the Kate Situation/how that affects their relationships with Katherine is much more personal than for other characters, because they're all directly affected by what happened, and then a fic happened!

It starts like this:

David comes home from the apartment he’s been sharing with Kate. He’s got Leah with him, and he looks broken.

Benny catches him as he all but collapses into his arms, carefully aware of where Leah is so she doesn’t get smushed between them.

“David, are you okay? Is Kate okay?”

“She’s left me, Ben. After everything we’ve – she dumped me. She doesn’t want custody of Leah or anything.”

“Oh, David,” Benny says quietly. “Oh god, Dave, I’m so sorry.”

It feels like the floor has fallen out from under them. Like Benny’s heart is in his throat and he’s falling and he’s not sure where they’re going to land. This is going to change everything.

This is going to change _everything_.

Benny channels his own low-level panic into taking care of David, who is completely shattered. He is all but literally holding David together.

Darcy gets home from wherever he’d been – Benny doesn’t remember – and knows instantly that something is very, very wrong. He drops his bag by the door and crosses the room.

He asks Benny, head a breath away from his ear so David won’t hear, “Is Kate –“

Benny shakes his head. “She’s fine. I mean, I actually don’t know. She’s not hurt or dead.”

“What happened?”

“She dumped him. I don’t know why. Can you take Leah?”

Darcy nods, but his eyes are wide and he doesn’t say anything. He shifts so he’s kneeling in front of the couch, more or less centered between Benny and David, then carefully lifts Leah out of David’s arms. She fusses a little at being taken from David, but calms when she realizes she’s still being held by family.

As soon as Leah is out of the way, Benny pulls David into a crushing hug. David seems to be beyond actually crying but he clings to Benny like his life depends on it.

\--

Bill comes home to one hell of a scene – Darcy in the kitchen dancing with Leah to keep her calm while he warms up a bottle for her, David in pieces on the couch while Benny tries to tape him back together. He joins his boyfriend in the kitchen, knowing instinctively that whatever’s happening in the living room is too volatile for real answers.

“Kate and David are done,” Darcy says, before Bill can even ask. “Do you have anything you need to get done tonight, or are you good to come to Kate’s with me? I want to get Dave and Leah’s stuff for him and – and I want to check on her.”

Bill nods.

They go over to Kate’s about an hour later, after putting Leah down for a nap in her travel crib in David and Benny’s room. They don’t tell David and Benny where they’re going, although Bill meets Ben’s eyes over David’s shoulder and he’s pretty sure he knows what they’re up to.

Kate looks like she’s been crying when they arrive, but she’s also halfway through packing David and Leah’s things neatly into plastic bins.

“Katie?”

“Bill! Darce!” she says, like they’re just over for a casual visit. “You’re here for David’s things, right? I’ll have it all ready for you in a –“

Bill catches her by the forearms, stopping her in he tracks. She won’t quite meet his eye. “Kate, what happened?”

“Joe,” Kate replies, any semblance of normalcy draining out of her. She looks tired.

“What’d he do?” says Darcy, coming over to stand next to Bill. “He was here a few weeks ago, right?”

“I told him and Mom about Leah,” says Kate. “Brought her out to lunch with me. I thought it’d be a nice way to introduce them, you know? Out in public where Joe couldn’t cause a scene.”

“But?”

“You know my father.” She shrugs. “I don’t know if it’s the scandal of it or the fact that I kept it from them for so long that’s worse, but – well, probably the scandal.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him,” says Bill. He has never been the biggest fan of Kate’s father, but this – whatever this is – is a new low.

“He threatened my entire career,” Kate says in a low voice. “He said he’d make sure I could never get hired as a journalist, that I no one would ever even look at my portfolio or my resume after they saw my name. He said he’d cut me off. And it’s no empty threat, you know it isn’t.”

“We know,” says Darcy. Bill guides Kate to the couch, and they sit down on either side of her. “I assume it was an ultimatum, though? Leave David and Leah or never look at a newspaper again?”

Kate nods silently. There are tears rolling down her cheeks.

“Katie,” Darcy says gently. “We would’ve taken care of you.”

“I know, I know,” says Kate. “But it’s not about the _money_ , I – I’ve wanted to be a reporter my whole life, I don’t have a backup plan. I don’t _want_ a backup plan.”

“Is it worth this?” asks Bill. He can tell she’s almost as broken up about this as David is, with an extra layer of internal conflict just for complication. “You love David and Leah.”

“Not enough,” Kate says. “I – I know that’s a shitty thing to say, I know I’m a terrible – I guess I’m not even a mother anymore, am I? But I, _fuck_ , I never wanted this. I never wanted any of this. I love Leah but I – I can’t give up my future for her.”

It’s surprisingly cold, for Kate. She’s always been determined, goal-focused, but Bill never would’ve expected that she’d drop her family for the sake of her career.

“Katie –“

“I know.”

“Are you alright?”

“I don’t think I have a right not to be.”

“That’s not healthy, Kit.”

Kate sighs. “I’ll be fine. Go home and take care of David and Lee for me, would you?”

\--

The day before graduation, Darcy helps David get Leah ready to meet his family. Which is to say, Darcy gets Leah ready while David talks himself into actually going.

“Hey, are you going home after this?” Darcy asks, once David has pulled himself together.

“To Chicago?” replies David. “I don’t know. Probably? I’ve got an offer with a firm there, but I wasn’t planning to take it. I guess now I probably should.”

Darcy hands Leah to David and puts a hand on his shoulder. “When you decide what you want to do, tell us, okay? Don’t worry about flights or shipping the baby stuff or anything. We’ve got you.”

“Thanks, Darce,” David says. He pulls his phone out. “Shit, okay, they’re waiting on me. Is it too late to tell them I’ve died or something?”

“Yes,” says Darcy. “Go, it’ll be okay.”

\--

David leaves.

There’s no fanfare or anything, he and Leah just go. Bill sends the things they couldn’t fly with on a few days later.

He sends a text to all three of them individually, rather than in one of their group chats. It’s more or less the same.

_Thank you for everything._

And then he never texts them again.

\--

Benny lives with Bill and Darcy for a while, but it’s weird and empty without David and Ben doesn’t want to talk to Kate, so he moves into his own place a few months after graduation.

David still hasn’t responded to any of Benny’s texts, not in ages, but he keeps sending them because he wants David to know he’s still loved. And because he worries about David’s mental state on a pretty regular basis and he’d really like some confirmation that David is, like, alive.

Still, Ben moves on. He gets a job in his field (score!) and starts making other friends. He thinks about his best friend and the kid he was supposed to help raise every few weeks, more if he’s been out with Darce and Bill recently, but mostly he just lives his life.

And he does stay in touch with Darcy and Bill. It doesn’t stop being weird and empty, but Ben couldn’t handle losing all four of them.

It’s not fucking fair, not fair at all, that Kate being selfish has completely destroyed their entire friend group. Benny spent all of college sure he’d found his _people_ , those friends people always talk about who were going to stick with him for the rest of his life. He loved them so goddamn much, and now things are never going to be the same.

He and David were best, _best_ friends. They’d loved each other deeply – not romantically, no, but losing him still feels like losing a piece of his soul.

It’s not fair.

Any time Ben finds himself on this line of thought it ends up inevitably circling back to _is David okay_ because as bad as Ben feels, David must feel worse. And anyway, Benny has always been better at worrying about other people than himself.

(That’s one of the reasons he and David are such compatible friends; neither of them is any good at looking out for himself, but both of them are great at fussing over the other.)

After a while he stops reaching out, if only because not hearing back hurts too much.

\--

Darcy hates to see how much of a toll all this has taken on Benny. It’s taken a toll on himself and Bill, too, but at least they have each other. At least they still talk to Kate, although Darcy doesn’t think that would make Ben feel any better.

(It doesn’t always make _Darcy_ feel any better, but Kate needs _someone_. And he and Bill know how her family is, because they’ve known her forever, and they understand even though everything is different and it’s kind of all her fault.)

At least Darcy has Bill.

He keeps telling himself that, on the nights when things feel too quiet and Darcy can’t bring himself to go into the living room because of the weird gaping hole in his life that will be there. He tells himself that, and he curls up next to Bill and waits to fall asleep.

Because yeah, this fucking sucks and it’s not fucking fair and screw Joe goddamn Pulitzer for taking away the best group of friends Darcy has ever had in his life, but he’s not alone right now. Ben’s alone. Kate’s alone.

David’s alone.

So he goes through the motions of a normal life and eventually he almost has one again, and when the ache of loss washes over him again, at least he has Bill.

\--

As long as they live in that apartment – and they stay put for a while, even after Benny moves out – Bill finds little fragments of their old life hidden away in it.

The most heartbreaking are the small baby toys they seem to discover every time they move a piece of furniture. Leah hadn’t had great motor control yet when she moved away, but good god did she have an arm on her. Bill had always known there were toys that didn’t make it into the boxes they’d sent David, but every time they find one it’s like a kick to the chest.

There’s also a day when Kath – who won’t let anyone call her Kate anymore, not even Bill or Darcy – is staying with them for a visit, and comes out of the guest room with tears in her eyes and a parenting book that must’ve gotten left on one of the shelves in her hand. That night is the closest the three of them ever get to talking about what happened.

Bill wonders if the others think about what happened as often as he does. Like, it’s all well and good to move on and have a life and other friends and all, but if David and Kath were an explosion, he and Darce and Benny and Leah were all caught up in the blast. Something’s changed about them for it, and there’s no going back.


End file.
